Mating season and the quest for more secure habitat have deer on the move at this time of year, increasing the chances of vehicle collisions.

Typically the greatest occurance of deer-vehicle crashes is in mid-November when the rut, or mating season, peaks.

Deer are also on the move in mid-Fall seeking new locations as crops are harvested and leaves fall from trees and shrubs, leaving them less secure than in their summer habitats.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf said to avoid collisions with deer while driving, stay alert. “Deer are more active in the evening hours and early morning hours. And at those times slow down, keep an eye on the ditches, that’s where they come from. Not only will they run right in front of you, but there’s also those accidents that most people can’t avoid if come running right out of a ditch and right into the side of a vehicle.”

Watch for more than one deer since they seldom travel alone, and reduce speed and be alert near wooded areas or green spaces such as parks or golf courses, and near water sources such as streams or ponds.

BY BRYAN THOMPSON

Climate change is real and must be addressed head-on to prevent future food shortages. That’s the message Cargill Executive Director Greg Page delivered Monday night to an audience at Kansas State University in Manhattan.

“Climate change is not a particularly popular subject in much of the heartland,” he said. “But at Cargill, we have come to believe that it is important to have serious conversations about what we can do now to accommodate a range of climate scenarios, and for agriculture to take part in those conversations and in making reasonable preparations.”

In an interview after his talk, Page spoke about the need to err on the side of caution when dealing with a global issue like climate change.

“If this is about flooding the basements of some resort hotels in Florida, that’s one kind of a problem,” he said. “But when it starts to impact the potential for us to feed the 9 billion people that we could be confronting (by 2050), I think it’s important for people at both extremes to realize they don’t know the answer. And the fact we don’t know the answer does not permit us to do nothing.”

Page co-chaired a group of business leaders who looked at the economic risks under various climate change scenarios. Their report, “Risky Business,” concluded that farmers in northern states likely would benefit from a longer growing season. But that would be more than offset by lost production in the southern grain belt.

“U.S. production of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton could decline by 14 percent by mid-century, and by as much as 42 percent by late-century,” he said.

But Page said that scenario doesn’t have to come true if farmers adapt to the changing climate — as he’s confident they will. He noted that adaptation already is happening in his home state of North Dakota. As the climate has warmed there, farmers have been able to take advantage of an average of nine additional frost-free days a year. That longer growing season means they can now grow 30 crops.

“At this stage, the good that’s happened in the top 2 degrees of latitude, basically central North Dakota and up, has not come at the expense of any other place,” Page said. “The most likely scenario in the study that Risky Business published is that we are going to cross that sometime in the next 20 years, the point at which there will be places that will start giving up productivity.”

Page noted that farmers already have technology that might be able to overcome those projected productivity losses.

“The temperatures that are predicted in the ‘Risky Business’ study are actually lower than the temperatures faced by our corn-farming customers in Mato Grosso, Brazil, or in Thailand,” he said. U.S. Midwest farmers could adopt some of their methods when facing possible temperature increases in the coming decades, Page said.

The debate over whether climate change is caused by human activity — like burning fossil fuels — is beside the point, he said.

“If we thought, based on seismology, that we were going to have a period of increased volcanic activity that was going to impact the climate, would we then say that because we didn’t cause it we don’t need to do anything to prepare? What difference does it make, other than on the issue of trying to make people stop certain behaviors? From an agricultural standpoint, we have to prepare ourselves for a different climate than we have today,” Page said.

While Cargill has faced some criticism for addressing climate change, Page said neither he nor the company regrets the decision.

“Should agriculture remain — in the perception of many consumers and many of the world’s biggest packaged-foods companies — deniers and people that are unwilling to engage?” he asked. “Is that a good brand for us, collectively, to carry to consumers, who increasingly, by survey, think to some degree or another this is happening, and that it’s true?”

It’s only natural for Cargill to play a leading role in agriculture’s response to climate change, he said, because the company has operations all over the world.

Page spoke at K-State as part of its Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems Lecture Series. He started at Cargill in 1974 as a trainee in its feed division. In 2007 he became CEO of Cargill and later that year also was named chairman. He retired as Cargill’s CEO in 2013 but continues to serve as executive director.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

According to the National Weather Service of Topeka, unseasonably warm conditions will continue today and tomorrow with highs in the 70s to low 80s. The combination of warm and dry conditions today will result in very high fire danger this afternoon, primarily south and west of Manhattan. A cold front will move through on Thursday, bringing a cool-down by Friday and Saturday with highs dropping into the 60s.

Tonight: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 40s. Southeast winds around 5 mph.

Thursday: Sunny. Highs in the upper 70s. East winds around 5 mph shifting to the north 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear. Lows around 40. North winds 5 to 15 mph.

Friday: Cooler…sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 40s.

Saturday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 60s.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 40s.

Sunday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 50s.

Monday: Breezy. Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 70s.

Monday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. Chance of rain showers and isolated thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 50s. Chance of precipitation 30 percent.

Tuesday: Partly sunny with a 40 percent chance of rain showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 70s.

The 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March is coming up on Friday and Larry Hicks, Geary County Commissioner reflected on that day calling it,”one of the single greatest experiences in my life.”

While reflecting back on the day of the march Hicks recalled that there was some controversy involving black organizations hesitant about supporting the march, because they didn’t know the intention of the marches organizer Louis Farakhan, the Leader of the Nation of Islam.

“From my various conversations with people who were involved in the nation, I was convinced that the purpose was to bring African-American males together under one umbrella, and that umbrella was unity,” said Hicks. “That happened during the course of that period of time. It was truly an amazing event to be a part of.”

Hicks went on to say that he was disappointed with the follow-up of the event because it did not result in major changes to the African-American community on a national scale,”particularly in urban and mid-urban areas.”

Hicks said that he would have liked to see a greater emphasis put on education, specifically greater support to upgrade and expand schools that were a part of the United Negro College Fund at that time.

The Geary County Commission has adopted a new employee residency policy.

In the past the employees have been required to live within 30 miles of the work site.  That will no longer the case.

Commission Chair Ben Bennett explained the change is due to the “difficulty in finding qualified people for qualified positions, and the fact that nobody else is doing it now. Everybody is moving away from that.”

A check with eight other counties in Kansas revealed no one with the 30-mile requirement, except for Riley County, who requires members of the police department to live within 30 miles, and Seward County, who requires Sheriff’s Department employees to live within 30 miles.

In the future the new policy for Geary County said that if two candidates are equally qualified, preference will be given to Geary County residents. Also, certain positions may be subject to response time restrictions. In those cases employees shall be notified by their department head of the requirement. The employee will be required then, to comply with the requirement within 90 days after notification.

A Junction City delegation has been visiting with Congressional staffers during their trip to the Association of the United States Army annual meeting in Washington D.C..

Junction City Mayor Mick McCallister highlighted some of the topics they have been discussing.

“Housing, mental health issues, mental health issue funding, OEA funding, impact aid funding, sequestration and our problem with blue-green algae issues,” said McCallister. “One of the big things that we’ve done so far is work with our community regionalism partners, Manhattan, and we’ve had several meetings with them to discuss our community issues and how they relate to one another.”

McCallister is joined by Commissioner Phyllis Fitzgerald, City Manager Allen Dinkel and Chamber of Commerce CEO Dennis Beson have been visiting with staffers for Senator Pat Roberts, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, and Congressmen Mike Pompeo and Tim Huelskamp.

The AUSA annual meeting runs through Wednesday.

MANHATTAN – Johnathon Elliott, 20, of Manhattan, appeared in Riley County Court on Tuesday afternoon for a status check under Judge Malcolm.

Elliott was arrested on September 11, in connection with a series of robberies and a theft that were reported in the central portion of Manhattan on September 4, that prompted the campus lockdown at Kansas State University.

He is charged with three counts of felony-aggravated robbery and one count of felony conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and two misdemeanor theft charges.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for November 10.

Junction City Public Works has announced that the 700 block of West Spruce Street will be closed through Friday due to road repairs.